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Resident says Lakeside Point clearing contradicts conservation easement; urges commission scrutiny
Summary
Donald Danella, a member of the East Lyme Conservation Commission and the Patagansett Lake Association, told the Planning Commission that crews cleared nearly all trees on easement parcels at the Lakeside Point subdivision and urged commissioners to re-examine the approval and easement language.
Donald Danella, a member of the East Lyme Commission for the Conservation of Natural Resources and a board member of the Patagansett Lake Association, told the Planning Commission on July 14 that recent site work at the Lakeside Point subdivision appears to have removed most shoreline vegetation reserved by the conservation easement tied to the project.
Danella said he reviewed the commission minutes and the conservation easement presented during the April 8, 2025 approval and found apparent inconsistencies between testimony, the easement text and what is now visible on the ground. He said the easement repeatedly limits lake access paths to 10 feet and includes language (paragraph e) allowing only "hand cutting and removal of brush, mountain laurel, and similar vegetation, and trees with 6 inches or less caliper, provided no stump removal shall occur." He told commissioners that his review of meeting video and the easement led him to expect narrower, low-impact access to the lake.
"This situation is a warning to this commission," Danella said, arguing that the clearing he observed went well beyond what easement language and earlier testimony appeared to allow. He said the original applicants (Portside Holdings Inc. and English Harbor Capital Partners LLC) subsequently sold the property to a builder identified in the record as Nova/Nova Developers LLC, and that he saw "clear cut all but the largest trees on the conservation easement parcels." Danella told commissioners he attached photographs to his written submission so they could "appreciate what I call the unregulated damage done to the shoreline vegetation of Patagansett Lake." (Donald Danella, member, East Lyme Commission for the Conservation of Natural Resources and Patagansett Lake Association board member.)
Danella also raised a procedural concern: he argued that a small note on the site plan submitted with the subdivision materials appears to allow broader tree and shrub removal inside the regulated 300-foot Inland Wetlands review area, and he said the Inland Wetlands Agency reported it lacked grounds to issue a notice of violation. He said the combination of minute text, site-plan notes and the way easement language was presented at the earlier hearing left the public without effective notice of the easement's actual effect.
The resident asked the Planning Commission to scrutinize submissions more carefully, consider the track records of applicants who come before the town, and to use the Conservation Commission's advisory capacity to assist when environmental or natural-resource issues arise. He said he would provide a written copy of his remarks and photos to the commission secretary.
Commission staff acknowledged receipt of Danella's materials and said staff would follow up with him. No formal enforcement action or motion resulted directly from the public comment segment at the July 14 meeting.
What happens next: Danella offered to make his photographs and written statement available to staff; commissioners did not take enforcement action during the Planning Commission meeting but the matter was discussed at length by Mr. Danella and staff during the public-delegations portion of the meeting.
